Monthly Archives: May 2012

Being a St. Augustine nerd and discernment

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Discovering Vocation, St. Augustine, Vocation

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There are Star War nerds, Star Trek nerds, Hello Kitty nerds and Lord of the Rings nerds … just to name a few.  Part of the dynamic of the “nerd” is to keep returning to the source of fascination – watching the movie or reading the book for the one hundredth time.  With this stipulation, I have come to realize that I am a St. Augustine nerd.  Anything I come across by the Bishop of Hippo I latch onto even if I have already encountered it a number of times before.  Today’s excerpt from Augustine’s Confessions found in the Office of Readings is a prime example.  This is a very familiar section to me but yet, once again, it spoke in a new way and I found myself being led by the saint’s thoughts into a new insight.

The part that most struck me was the first paragraph quoted.

Lord, you know me.  Let me know you.  Let me come to know you even as I am known.  You are the strength of my soul; enter it and make it a place suitable for your dwelling, a possession without spot or blemish.  This is my hope and the reason I speak.  In this hope I rejoice, when I rejoice rightly.  As for the other things of this life, the less they deserve tears, the more likely will they be lamented; and the more they deserve tears, the less likely will men sorrow for them.  For behold, you have loved the truth, because the one who does what is true enters into the light.  I wish to do this truth before you alone by praising you, and before a multitude of witnesses by writing of you.

First off, Augustine’s audaciousness strikes me.  Lord … Let me know you.  This is God that Augustine is addressing before whom we are each just a speck of dust yet Augustine is confident to make this request.  Augustine can do this because he has come to realize that God indeed wants to be known by us.  God wants relationship with us.  In fact, all of salvation history can be read as God seeking relationship with us.  An effort, on God’s part, that culminates and is fulfilled in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Second, Augustine realizes that for us to begin to know God we need to first open ourselves to him; allowing him to make of us a pleasing dwelling place by his purifying presence.  Augustine is not shy about confessing his own sinfulness and he is wise enough to recognize that God cannot dwell together with sin and evil.  We cannot hold onto our sins and expect God to not notice nor care.  The presence of God demands conversion – both big and small – on our part.  I believe that one of the most besetting sins of our age is a fundamental ingratitude in the heart that flies into a huff when anyone (including God) dares to challenge it to move beyond its self-absorption and narcissism.  This ingratitude is witnessed to in the thought that God had better accomodate himself to my sins rather than myself being challenged and converted. 

I would venture to say that Augustine would have no place for those with an ungrateful heart.  In other words, I think that the saint would be someone who would find it hard to suffer fools.  This awareness on Augustine’s part of the needed purifying presence of God in life brings insight and allows him to judge rightly the tenor of the times where what does not deserve tears is lamented and where what does deserve tears is barely noticed let alone sorrowed after.  Allowing God’s presence to make of us a pleasing dwelling does not just remain within as a comforting sentiment, a warm fuzzy inside.  The more that God comes to dwell within the more one is able to both discern the world and see correctly while also discerning oneself and ones own place in the world.

This is where my own Vocation Director ears listen in attentively to Augustine’s development of thought.  When we in all humility allow God to come within us and “know” us; we learn who we ourselves are meant to be.  We start to realize our vocation in life.  When we do not allow God within then we will never break beyond the surface of any true self-knowledge.  No matter how many seminars we go to or self-help books we read or hours in therapy we attend or “stuff” we acquire.

When we allow God within we discover who we ourselves are.

For behold, you have loved the truth, because the one who does what is true enters into the light.                 

Pentecost: Think Green

25 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Holy Spirit, Pentecost

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Throughout the Scriptural proclamation of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13 and John 15:26-27; 16:12-15) there is the underlying theme of restored communication – being able once again to speak to one another. 
It has been said that the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost signals the end of the division and discord which resulted from the Tower of Babel.  Where the pride of Babel led to the dividing of humanity; now all peoples and nations are united in their listening to the proclamation of the gospel resulting from the coming of Spirit upon the disciples.  When the crowd from a multitude of peoples and nations gathers at the door of the house where the apostles were we are told that they ask, Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?  Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?  Through the Holy Spirit divisions are overcome and it is possible to once again speak to one another.
The coming of the Holy Spirit also brings healing to those divisions that occur within our very selves.  We all have these.  In some form or another we are each fragmented.  These are the wounds and effects of original sin.  St. Paul summarizes what we all experience when he says, For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. (Rom. 7:19)  It is only the healing balm of the Holy Spirit which heals this inner fragmentation allowing us to then authentically proclaim, Jesus is Lord!  This proclamation found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is not just a nice catchphrase or slogan but is, in fact, a tangible witness of an authenticity achieved by a self that is being healed of the divisions within by God’s grace.  This proclamation cannot be faked.  It must be lived.
Finally, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit heals the deepest wound within; allowing us to once again hear the voice of God.  I have much more to tell you, says our Lord, but you cannot hear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.  He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. The Holy Spirit leads us into the very things of God which heal, elevate and enlighten.  The Spirit leads us beyond the crass reasoning of the secular and or our age.  Transcendence, living by something more than this world, is possible.
I have an interest in iconography.  For a number of years now I have been studying icons and even learning how to paint (write) icons.  Icons are considered visual theology (very appropriate for a visual age).  Over these years one thing that I have learned is that in Russian Orthodox thought red is not the only color that can be associated with the Holy Spirit.  (In western Christianity we primarily use red as the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit.)  In Orthodox thought green can also be seen as a color denoting the Holy Spirit.  When we consider the creed that we profess this makes sense.  In the Nicene Creed we proclaim the Holy Spirit to be the Lord, the giver of life…  Recently I was able to spend an afternoon on a short hike in the mountains and at one point I found myself right at the edge of a wooded area looking down upon a little vale of tall green grass.  It was quiet and still.  You could only hear the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.  The leaves above me were green and as the wind continued to blow I saw waves ripple through the green grass.  Green was all over and it struck me how green is the color of life.  It is so present (at least in East Tennessee) that it is easily overlooked often, I think, like the work of the Holy Spirit. 
I share this thought because I think it is helpful to add a little green to our understanding of the Holy Spirit and I think that the readings for this day with their theme of restored connection, dialogue and relationship allow for this.  Yes, the Holy Spirit is red: the Spirit purifies, inflames and convicts us in the truth.  And yes, the Holy Spirit is green: the Spirit restores, renews and both summons us and enables us to achieve an authenticity in life and in relationship.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.

Ascension Sunday: The concreteness of the Ascension

19 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Ascension of Christ, love

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“The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by Piotr Basin

Today, the Church celebrates one of its most concrete feasts – the ascension of Christ.  Throughout history there have been (and will continue to be, I am sure) Utopian dreams of a better world of tomorrow.  These dreams have been based on everything from the rise and triumph of the proletariat to the notion of a separated community of the enlightened to (one which is very much in vogue now) the undaunted belief in the sure progress of science.  These are the Utopian dreams that history has seen come and go.  They are often idealistic and based in a hoped for vision of tomorrow but today’s feast is different.  Where Utopian dreams are often ideological and abstract the ascension of Christ is concrete and sure. 

It is so because of the simple fact that it is not founded in some abstract principle or ideal but in the very resurrected body of Christ.  Christ is indeed risen which means he is risen body and soul, flesh and blood.  Anything less would not be fully and authentically human.  Christ ascends to the Father not just in spirit or thought but in the very concrete reality of his full humanity.  Throughout this Easter season in the Scriptures proclaimed we have heard Christ, time and time again, assuring his disciples that he is indeed present in “flesh and bone”.  This means fully present not just up to the moment of the ascension but in the ascension itself and now at the Father’s right hand.  From the day of the ascension heaven “began to populate itself with the earth, or, in the language of Revelation, a new heaven and earth began.”

In the ascension we truly realize that we are not orphans.  We are not left to the cold and cruel winds of chance, fate and odds or a history without direction.  Direction has been set.  The resurrected Christ (body and soul) sits at the Father’s right hand.  This, and nothing less, is our goal.  It is what we are meant for and what we are called to by God’s grace.

It is truly concrete and it is achieved and experienced concretely. 

In the gospel Jesus tells us that he is “the way” and the way, it turns out, is walked concretely.  The ascension is experienced again not in some abstract manner but in how we concretely treat and love the smallest and poorest brothers and sisters in our midst.  This, I have found, is a foundational understanding of the Community of Sant’Egidio which really is nothing more than discipleship 101.  When we love concretely we experience the ascension and we are brought toward the fullness of the future that God has prepared for us in Christ.

Let me share an example.  For three years now our Johnson City Community of Sant’Egidio has been taking sandwich bags every Monday to the John Sevier Center.  (The John Sevier Center is a low-income housing unit in downtown Johnson City.)  We do not go there as experts in anything.  We know we cannot solve the residents problems and struggles.  We just go and we are faithful in going and in this simple act of being present a human space is created both for the residents and for us.  We become friends.  We are brought a little bit further toward the fullness that awaits us all.  In this human space miracles happen and signs are given – demons are cast out and life is gained.  I have seen it for myself these past three years.

Christ bestows his love upon us.  We are meant to communicate it.  Love that is not communicated soon withers and dies. 

Love is lived not abstractly but concretely and it is in the concrete act that we are brought toward the fullness that awaits us all.       
      
    

"Let us love one another."

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, Community of Sant'Egidio, love

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In my own prayer, reflection and preparation for the Sunday homily I often consult, “The Word of God Everyday”.  This is the daily Scripture reflection book for the Community of Sant’Egidio.  The reflections are written by Bishop Vincenzo Paglia.  Below I have copied in whole his reflection for this coming Sunday, the sixth Sunday of Easter.  I find it to be very good and thought-provoking.  I hope that you do too. 

 “Let us love one another.” This is the imperative that the apostle John never tires from addressing to his community. He knows how important love is in the life of all disciples, because he learned it directly from Jesus and had a concrete experience of his love. He was able to taste Jesus’ sweetness, to see how radical and abundant his love was, as he even loved his enemies, even to the point of giving his own life as a gift. John was a privileged witness of this love, an attentive custodian and a caring preacher. In his first letter, he wants to unveil the nature of Jesus’ love and reveal its source: “Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 Jn 4:7). The apostle speaks here of a love different from the one we normally understand. For us, love is a complex of sentiments that arises spontaneously from the heart, composed of attraction, kindness, desire, passion, self-gratification and satisfaction. To refer to this kind of love, the language of the New Testament employs the Greek word “eros.” The apostle, instead, uses the word “agape” to speak of the love that comes from God and that should govern the relationship between disciples.

To understand God’s love (agape) we cannot begin from our feelings or from our psychology, but from God. The Holy Scripture is the special document for understanding God’s love. It is, in fact, none other than a narrative of the historical event of God’s love for all of humanity. Page after page, in Holy Scripture, we discover a God who does not seem to find rest until he finds repose in the heart of each person. We could paraphrase the well-known sentence that Saint Augustine wrote about man and apply it to the Lord: “Inquietum est cor meum…” (trans. My heart is restless). Davide Maria Turoldo spoke of the “restless heart of God,” which descended to earth to seek out and save that which had been lost, to give life to that which had it no longer. It is a God who becomes a beggar, a beggar for love. In truth, while God extends his hand to ask for love, he gives it to humanity. God is the spirit that descends into the material; the light that penetrates the darkness to give life, to spiritualize, to elevate and to save.

This is Christian love: a God who descends freely into the trenches of the lives of all people to reach out to his beloved. Yes, God is restless until he finds us, until he touches our heart. And God was so restless “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). God’s love, we could say, “is in descent”, it comes down to reach deep into the lives of all men and women with total devotion, “laying down his life for his friends,” as Jesus himself says. John continues to reflect in his first letter: “In this is love (Christian love), not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). God is the one who loves first, loving even those who are unworthy of his love. God’s love, in essence, is entirely free. It is unjustified. God, in fact, does not love the righteous, but the sinners who are not worthy of being loved. Paul says that God chose the things that do not count for much so that they would count. God chose what was despised in the sight of men so that it would be an object of his grace (1 Cor 1:28). This is the God of the Gospels; a God who is moved by a love that seems attracted particularly by the absence of life and by the negation of love. God is a love that annihilates itself just to reach the most wretched of all people to enrich that person with its friendship. Jesus’ life is held within this very love. God, in fact, is not Being in itself, as understood in Aristotelian thought, but is Being for us, an infinite opening and passionate love for us.

If the entirety of Scripture is the history of God’s love on earth, then the Gospels are its culmination. Therefore, if we want to utter something about God’s love, if we want to give it a face and a name, we can say that love is Jesus. Love is everything that Jesus said, lived, did, loved, suffered… Love is seeking out the sick, it is having friends who are notorious sinners and Samaritans, that is, people who are considered foreigners, enemies and despised. Love is giving one’s life for all; it is remaining alone if needed so as not to betray the Gospel; it is having as a first companion in heaven a man condemned to death, the penitent thief… This is God’s love, which is entirely different from the self-love pounded into our psyche, from the ups and downs of our temperament, of our moods. The bonds of affection between people based on natural attraction are fleeting: it takes little to ruin and destroy them. It is now rare for people to have life-long relationships and difficult to understand relationships as definitive. Self-love, which exists more for personal satisfaction than for the happiness of others, is not strong enough to resist the tempests and problems of life. There are so many victims who fall down the weak and slippery slope of self-love. Only God’’s love is the solid rock that spares us from destruction, because before oneself, there is the other. Jesus gave us an example of this with his own life. He was able to say to his disciples: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (Jn 15:9).

The relationship between the Father and the Son is the model and source of Christian love. Certainly such a love could not come from us alone. We can, however, receive it from God. And, if we receive it, this love generates an abundant, universal fellowship that knows no enemies. It gives rise to a new community of men and women, where God’s love crosses over—even identifies with—the mutual love between people. One, in fact, is the cause of the other. A well-known Russian theologian used to love to say, “Do not allow your soul to forget this saying of the ancient spiritual masters: after God, regard every person as God!” This type of love is the distinctive sign of whoever is born of God. But this love is not a possession that one can acquire once and for all, nor is it the birth right of this or that group. God’s love does not know any limits or borders of any kind. It goes beyond space and time. It shatters every ethnic, cultural and national barrier. It even breaks through the barrier of faith, as one reads in the Acts of the Apostles when the Holy Spirit filled the house of the pagan Cornelius. Agape is eternal; everything passes, even faith and hope, but love remains forever. Not even death can break it for love is stronger than death. Jesus can rightfully conclude, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11).

Go to the primary source – the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Congegation for the Doctrine of the Faith

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by in dialogue, LCWR, Vatican

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When I studied theology in seminary I had a number of professors impart the same advice, “Go to the primary source.”  In other words, do not just read another person’s interpretation of a document.  Do not just accept what another person says that a document states; rather, go to the document and read it for yourself and then form your own opinion.

This advice, which has held me in good stead since the day I first heard it, has been running through my mind as I peruse the different editorials and interpretations of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s recently issued, “Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)” in the United States.  What I hear most people saying that the document states and is about is not what I find when I read the document for myself.  Here are some examples.

From many commentaries one would think that this Assessment came out of the blue and sucker punched the sisters.  This is not the case.  The document demonstrates that there has been an ongoing dialogue between the LCWR and the Congregation since 2008.  There is a paper trail to prove it.

Another common misconception is that the Vatican disregards the social justice work of the religious sisters in the United States.  Again, this is not the case.  Here I share a quote which begins the second chapter of the Assessment, “The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years.”  Throughout the document the Congregation praises the work and witness of religious sisters.

Another misconception running rampant in the editorials that I have come across is that the Vatican is out to punish the sisters.  Another quote from the Assessment, “The renewal of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious which is the goal of this doctrinal assessment is in support of this essential charism (i.e. social justice and service to the poor) of Religious which has been so obvious in the life and growth of the Catholic Church in the United States … The overarching concern of the doctrinal Assessment is, therefore, to assist the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States in implementing an ecclesiology of communion founded on faith in Jesus Christ and the Church as the essential foundation for its important service to religious Communities and to all those in consecrated life.” 

“Renewal … concern … assist” these do not sound like the words of punishment to me.

There are two ecclesiological considerations that are at play here that are worthy of note I believe.

The first is that the Christian Church (at least in the Catholic Church’s perspective) is not just a social service agency.  Many contemporary viewpoints and commentators would like to limit the Church’s role specifically to this and only this.  “Yes, the Church has a part to play in the larger society when it feeds the poor and helps the needy but don’t you dare bring your doctrine into the public square.  There is no space for that and doctrine really is not all that important anyway.”  Well, the Church disagrees and it has been around long enough to see such ideologies come and go and one thing that it has learned in its two thousand year history is that witness divorced from doctrine soon crumbles.  The Congregation’s call to the LCWR to reassess its doctrinal foundations is not a punishment but rather a call to renewal in order to strengthen the witness of Religious in our society and world.

The second consideration is that the Catholic Church in its ecclesiology has a mechanism for dealing with such issues.  This cannot be said of all Christian faith traditions.  I am not naive.  I know that authority has been misused and heavy-handed at different points throughout Church history yet this is not the sole purview of the Catholic Church.  Every government, every religious group and every secular institution also shares in this sin.  Yes, authority has been misused throughout history but that does not mean that every exercise of legitimate authority is an injustice.  Some might wonder how this exercise of authority furthers the kingdom of God but it can also be wondered how the absence of any authority furthers God’s Kingdom.  How often must the Body of Christ be splintered because there seems to be no other way to solve a conflict or discuss a concern?  The Catholic Church has a mechanism.  It may not always be pretty.  It may not always run perfectly.  It must continually be held up to and renewed by the light of the Gospel but at least the Catholic Church has one.

This dialogue and process between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious did not just come out of the blue and it will not be solved overnight.  The dialogue and process will continue.  As this occurs, I hope that all of us will take to heart the common sense advice of my professors, “Go to the primary source.” and I also hope that media commentators will exercise their role responsibly and respect what the Church is about (even if they disagree) and reflect on the facts rather than their own biases and opinions.